Linuxchix Africa Celebrates SFD
By Anna Badimo - Tuesday, 06 September 2005
Linuxchix Africa will be participating in the Software Freedom Day celebrations planned for the 10th September 2005. Several studies have shown that not only are there few women in ICT, there are even fewer women with FOSS and Linux skills, especially when one looks at the technical side and at Africa in general. Our strategy for addressing these challenges has been to work in partnerships with existing organisations to mainstream gender into their programs and to build capacity for women, either by organising training workshops ourselves or by sending them to various training workshops. We are also continuously raising FOSS awareness amongst women, especially high school and university students.
The Software Freedom Day (SFD) presents Linuxchix Africa with an opportunity to publicize Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and get more women involved in the activities planned. Linuxchix Africa have planned the SFD celebrations for Cameroon, Cte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and South Africa.
The information about these country events is as follows:
- Cameroon: PROTEGE QV, YAOUNDE, Contact Sylvie Siyam.
- Cote d'Ivoire: Contact Christelle Ncho.
- Kenya: The University of Nairobi, Chiromo Campus, Contact Dorcas Muthoni.
- South Africa: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Contact Anna Badimo.
The common theme for the day's programmes will revolve around presentations on the use of FOSS in areas like Education, Business and Civil Society, and Health; distribution of Linux and OpenOffice CDs, magazines and T-shirts and demonstration of a live FOSS environment. Women in education, business and civil society are welcome, as well as high school and university students. Anyone who is interested to assist or participate is welcome to contact the country organisers above.
SPONSORS
- GO-OPEN SOURCE
- Canonical
- Catholic University of Eastern Africa
- CATIA (Kenya Coordinating Office)
- KENIC - Kenya Network Information Center, the organisation managing the .KE ccTLD
- KICTANET (Kenya's ICT Multi-stakeholder consultative group)
- Obsidian Systems
- State IT Agency, South Africa
- Software Freedom International
- Tectonic
- Wits University School of Computer Science, South Africa
PARTNERS
- Department of Communications, South Africa
- Impi Linux
- Kenya Education Network
- Novell
- Protege QV, Cameroon
Merci Beaucoup,
Anna Badimo
Linuxchix Africa/ Linuxchix Afrique
www.africalinuxchix.org